ILWU

The G6 Alliance said it will omit calls to the Port of Oakland on the next four sailings of its Pacific Atlantic 2 (PA2) service between Asia, Central America, and the United States East and West Coasts, citing potential congestion "due to a shortage in labor as a result of ongoing labor issues." The alliance, whose members are ocean carriers APL, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai, MOL, NYK and OOCL said the affected sailings are: MOL Endeavor (v.069e), ETA Oakland on 8 July 2015 MOL Efficie...

The Federal Maritime Commission is being asked to find an agreement that allows West Coast Longshoremen to inspect chassis as they leave marine terminals to be illegal. In a letter to FMC Chairman Mario Cordero, attorneys for the Institute of International Container Lessors (IICL) say terminal operators, ocean carriers, and the organizations that represent them have agreed to have members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union perform mandatory roadability inspection...

A proposal to expand the Taft-Hartley Act for use in port labor disputes was attacked by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union spokesman as “outrageous, extremist, anti-worker.” Worker slowdowns during the lengthy and contentious negotiations in late 2014 and earlier this year between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association were viewed by many as one of the leading causes for congestion that crippled West Coast ports and caused dozens of ships to anchor at while ...

Senator Cory Gardner, R-Colo., introduced Thursday night a bill aimed at strengthening the Taft-Hartley Act in the wake of the protracted labor negotiations and slowdowns that snarled West Coast ports last in late 2014 and early 2015. Gardner said in a press release that the purpose of his Protecting Orderly and Responsible Transit of Shipments (PORTS) Act is to “safeguard the American economy from the threat of labor shutdowns and slowdowns at seaports.” The ...

The Pacific Maritime Association said a disagreement with an International Longshore and Warehouse Union marine clerk local over dispatching procedures closed the Port of Oakland during the second shift Sunday. “Despite reaching a new agreement in the protracted 2014 negotiations with PMA on a dispatch procedure for Sunday and holiday operations at the Port of Oakland, ILWU Local 34 officials decided not to honor the agreement. Instead, the Union officials refused to dispatch wo...

The Pacific Maritime Association announced Wednesday its members have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new five-year labor contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The contract, if ratified by the ILWU, is retroactive to July 1, 2014 and runs through June 30, 2019. PMA represents 72 employers, including cargo carriers, terminal operators and stevedores. The ILWU plans to tally votes on the ratification of the tentative contract by its members Friday, M...

With the results of a vote by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on whether to accept the tentative contract reached with the Pacific Maritime Association due to be tallied on Friday, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is renewing her call for longshoremen and their employers to be brought under the Railway Labor Act (RLA). (While the ILWU and PMA bargain for most West Coast dockworkers, the International Longshoremen's Ass...

The Port of Oakland has confirmed it will be closed Friday as members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union plan to hold a rally and march to protest police violence. The port said on its home page, "Terminal operations suspended May 1 day shift for monthly ILWU stop-work meeting." A statement posted on the website of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee said ILWU Local 10 "voted at its meeting on April 16, 2015 to call for a stop-work meeting on ...

The heads of three influential industry associations said a new partnership between organized labor and terminal management is necessary to prevent the damaging effects of future work slowdowns and repair the reputation of West Coast ports. "Enough is enough. There are too many challenges facing the ports already to allow uncertainty from unpredictable labor negotiations every few years to become standard operating procedure. What we need is a path to ensure that our ports — and...

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union's Coast Longshore Committee will meet next week in San Francisco, starting on Monday, to review the tentative agreement reached with the Pacific Maritime Association last month. Meanwhile, the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, a group that has openly criticized ILWU leadership and the proposed deal, will also hold a forum. If the Coast Longshore Committee recommends ratification, the tentative contract will be mailed to ...

The Port of Long Beach will continue to cap the amount of dockage fees paid by ocean carriers due to lingering congestion at the California port. Port commissioners voted on Monday to extend a four-day cap on the amount of dockage shipowners will have to pay until June 30. A memo explaining the need for the extension of financial relief noted, “Historically, a container vessel would dock for an average of 3.5 to four days; however, the same vessel may now dock up to...

U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez said Tuesday that he told leadership from the Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union not to surrender their innate advantages when he was flown in to resolve a nine month-long standoff over a new labor contract. Speaking at a Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce event in Washington, D.C., Perez also said the acrimonious contract negotiations would never have been resolved without the work of Los Angeles Mayor Eri...

The Port of Oakland said Thursday all of its marine terminals were open and operating after its largest terminal was shutdown earlier in the week over a disagreement over work rules. Employers and shippers alleged longshoremen engaged in illegal work stoppages at Oakland International Container Terminal , despite the tentative agreement last month between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association on a new, five-year coast-wide contract. &n...

Employers and shippers are complaining that longshoremen in Oakland are engaging in illegal work stoppages despite the tentative agreement last month between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association on a new, five-year coast-wide contract. In a statement, the PMA said ILWU Local 10 has “repeatedly engaged in illegal work stoppages at the Port of Oakland, bringing operations to a standstill at Oakland International Container Terminal, the l...

Negotiators for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association agreed on a tentative five year contract Feb. 20, but final approval of the deal is still some time away. The deal reached last month capped an over nine-month negotiation process that began on May 12, 2014. The ILWU’s Coast Longshore Committee will meet for a week, from March 30 through April 3, and its 90 delegates will review the tentative agreement. They will decide ...

Cargo is flowing once again at U.S. West Coast ports after several months of dysfunction thanks to a tentative labor agreement 10 days ago between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. That’s a big relief to shippers and transportation providers who were only able to conduct a fraction of their normal international business during the nearly 10-month long contract negotiations. The man responsible for brokering the deal, U.S. Labor...

Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., on Wednesday called on the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate the Pacific Maritime Association’s decisions during its recent contract negotiations with dockworkers. Specifically, PMA suspended night, weekend and holiday shifts in the weeks before a tentative deal was reached. The multi-employer bargaining unit on the West Coast said it eliminated the off-peak shifts for vessel loading and unloading to concentrate on clearing clogged container ...

The operator of Port of Portland, Oregon’s only container terminal, said despite the signing of a tentative contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are continuing to snarl operations at its facility. ICTSI Oregon Inc., which operates Terminal 6 in Portland, said “we are currently not seeing a good faith effort by ILWU to bring productivity at Terminal 6 to acceptable levels. Additionally, the ILWU is failing to p...

The tentative deal Friday evening between the West Coast longshoremen’s union and terminal operators fundamentally overhauled the arbitration system that had been a major bone of contention and was necessary because resulting port disruption was causing too many innocent victims, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in a television interview Monday afternoon. Importers and exporters of all stripes were losing money because of the cargo delays as ports filled to capacity with contai...

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced Friday night the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have reached an agreement on a new five-year contract. Perez said container ports up and down the West Coast will resume working "full bore" on Saturday, but added he did not know how long it will take to work off the backlog in container traffic. "They understand the urgency of the task," he said. Monday morning at 7...

No sooner had members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association announced in San Francisco on Friday that they had reached an agreement on a new five-year contract operations across San Francisco Bay came to a halt. The Port of Oakland, which posts regular updates on operations on its website , said work resumed at its terminals “Saturday night, Feb. 21, and continued Sunday morning only to be suspended for the remainder of the day shift...

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced Friday night the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have reached an agreement on a new five-year contract. Perez said container ports up and down the West Coast will resume working "full bore" on Saturday but said he did not know how long it will take to work off the backlog in container traffic. "They understand the urgency of the task," he said. The agreement comes a...

An agreement ending the 10-month contract standoff between the dock workers’ union and management that has crippled West Coast ports could be reached in days rather than weeks now that White House has intervened, Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in globalization, trade and labor issues, predicted Thursday. Last weekend, President Obama dispatched Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to San Francisco to help the International Longshor...

Negotiators from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association will be asked to come to Washington next week if they cannot reach agreement on a new contract. Updating the Port of Los Angeles board of harbor commissioners on contract talks Thursday, Gene Seroka, the port's executive director said “Tonight we have a federally mandated deadline on those negotiations directly from the White House. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez will report back to t...

Government officials stepped up pressure on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to wrap up contract negotiations as reports from shippers being harmed by slowdowns at West Coast ports continued to roll in. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, who came to San Francisco on Tuesday to encourage a resolution, was joined on Wednesday by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for meetings with the ILWU and PMA. &nbsp...

The U.S. Labor Department said Secretary Thomas Perez had positive and productive meetings with the leadership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association on Tuesday. "On behalf of President Obama, Secretary Perez made clear that the dispute has led to a very negative impact on the U.S. economy, and further delay risks tens of thousands of jobs and will cost American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars," the department said in a...

Several groups will discuss efforts to secure unemployment benefits and other financial assistance for drayage drivers in the event of a shutdown of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach at a press conference Wednesday morning. “If the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach shut down in the coming days because of stalled longshoremen contract negotiations, more than 10,000 port truck drivers misclassified as ‘independent contractors’ by their employers will be idled without ...

Oregon’s congressional delegation is urging President Obama to force ocean shipping companies and longshoremen back to regular operational tempo at West Coast ports if they can’t quickly end a labor dispute that has created severe gridlock and cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, spoilage and extra transport fees. Some members also asked the union and management to agree to binding arbitration, assisted by the federal government. Pacific Northwes...

The Port of Oakland in northern California said its containerized cargo volumes were down 32 percent across its terminals in January and blamed the decline on "slowdowns arising from a dispute between dockworkers and employers over a new contract." The port authority reported today that containerized imports were down 39 percent from January 2014. Exports declined 26 percent. “With a decline in productivity and a breakdown in vessel schedules at all U.S. West Coast ...

President Obama is sending Labor Secretary Tom Perez to get involved in the contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association. Articles on the website of the Washington Post and The Hill newspapers carried identical statements from White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz as saying on Saturday, "The negotiations over the functioning of the West Coast ports have been taking place for ...

Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association resumed Thursday. Representatives from both sides met face to face Thursday for the first time since last Friday, both with a federal mediator and separately with the mediator. Contract talks are expected to resume today. The Pacific Maritime Association had announced on Wednesday that it would not have ships loaded or unloaded on Thursday at W...

In the wake of the announcement earlier this week by ocean carrier Hanjin Shipping that it will stop calling the Port of Portland in Oregon, International Container Terminal Services Inc., the operator of the port's only container terminal, laid the blame for end of service on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and said it will seek to attract other carriers. "Hanjin's decision to leave the Port of Portland on March 9, 2015, due to the sustained and deliberate actio...

The Pacific Maritime Association said it will suspend vessel operations at West Coast port terminals on four of the next five days, rather than pay premium salaries to members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The four dates affected by the suspension of vessel operations are today, Thursday, 2/12 (Lincoln’s Birthday); Saturday, 2/14; Sunday, 2/15; and Monday, 2/16 (Washington’s Birthday). PMA spokesman Wade Gates said the longshoremen are continuing slowdowns ...

The Pacific Maritime Association said an “unwavering demand” by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to have the right to fire arbitrators that rule against the union “threatens to sink” West Coast port contract talks. The union and the PMA did not meet over the weekend or on Monday. Monday afternoon an ILWU spokesman said the union was willing to resume negotiations immediately. PMA, which represents ILWU employers, said the union’s demand “would give th...

Update: Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association are set to resume following a two day break as congestion at West Coast ports continues to build. According to Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, there were 23 ships, eight less than yesterday, at anchor outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Monday morning at 7 a.m. due to congestion. The count incl...

While the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association continued contract negotiations in San Francisco Thursday, the war of words between the two organizations continued with ILWU International President Robert McEllrath complaining the PMA is threatening to shut down West Coast ports, bargaining in the media, and distorting the facts. Referencing remarks made by Jim McKenna, PMA's president and chief executive officer, during a press conference ...

The chief negotiator for the Pacific Maritime Association said employers on Tuesday made a contract offer to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that he hopes can help avert a “coastwide meltdown” that he says is just a week or two away. Jim McKenna, the president and chief executive officer, said that with congestion at terminals increasing and low productivity there could be a gridlock at ports and a lockout in five to 10 days. "We are going to continu...

Pacific Maritime Association said that Jim McKenna, its chief executive officer, will hold a press conference to discuss ongoing labor negotiations at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. It will be the first time McKenna has held a press conference since contract negotiations with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union began last May on a new contract for workers in 29 West Coast ports. The ILWU has been working without a contract since July 1. "For the past three month...

Contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association appear to be coming to a head as the number of ships at anchor of West Coast Ports continues to grow. The PMA, which represents terminal operators up and down the West Coast, has provided a comprehensive offer to the union that the two sides are expected to continue to discuss today at a meeting in San Francisco. “We are pretty much at the end of negotiations,” on...

ICTSI Oregon, Inc., which operates Terminal 6, the container terminal in the Port of Portland, said the ILWU has escalated actions against its facility, "far beyond ‎what other West Coast ports are experiencing." Michael Garone, an attorney for the company, issued a statement that said on Tuesday, "the ILWU ordered a 12-hour work stoppage ‎commencing at 7:00 a.m." On Wednesday, it said ILWU members "worked during the morning, but walked off ‎the job without notice a...

The Pacific Maritime Association said Monday afternoon that a “tentative agreement was reached on the chassis topic” with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union during contract talks on Sunday. “We are hopeful that this will allow us to move toward conclusion of an agreement in the near term,” said PMA spokesman Wade Gates. An ILWU spokesman said the union did not have a comment on the announcement. The jurisdiction over chassis maintenance and...

Thousands of longshoremen and their supporters participated in rallies in Los Angeles and Tacoma Thursday night as contract negotiations between their union and employers have entered into their ninth month. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have been meeting since May 2014 to forge a contract to replace the one that expired on July 1 last year. Bobby Olvera, president of ILWU Local 13, emphasized the union’s ties ...

Update: The Pacific Maritime Association on Thursday released the following statement regarding its ongoing negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union: “Nearly three months ago, the ILWU began a coordinated series of slowdowns intended to pressure employers to make concessions at the bargaining table. Ever since, PMA and its members have worked hard to counter the growing backlog of cargo that threatens to bring our ports to ...

The Pacific Maritime Association said West Coast container terminals are continuing to limit night operations at West Coast ports. A spokesman for the organization said there was no night loading and unloading of ships in the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach and no night operations at ports in the Pacific Northwest and Oakland. Last week, the PMA eliminated night shifts for International Longshore and Warehouse Union gangs that load and unload containerships ...

In what seems a discouraging sign for shippers and others hoping for a resolution of the contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the employer group Pacific Maritime Association, a rally is being organized for next week to protest the decision to limit the amount of work being done at congested marine terminals in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino said he expects 5,000 people to show up for a demon...

A member of the leadership of the National Industrial Transportation League is calling for a moratorium on demurrage and detention charges at West Coast ports. Don Pisano, the chairman of the ocean committee of the NIT League, the nation's largest shipper organization, said the exchange of accusations by the Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union on Monday afternoon was "not encouraging at all." "From a shipper’s perspective, it...

The Pacific Maritime Association, which is representing management in contract talks with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said Monday that “more than two months of ILWU-staged slowdowns… have methodically reduced terminal productivity at the five largest ports on the West Coast.” “Operations are approaching complete gridlock,” PMA added. “Since late October 2014, the ILWU has crippled what were fully productive terminals in the Pacific Northwest and...

Import cargo volumes are expected to be higher this year in most U.S. ports when compared to 2014, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report published by National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. The report estimates that 17.2 million TEU of imports were handled at the dozen ports it tracks in 2014, 6 percent more than 2013’s 16.2 million. Imports in 2012 totaled 15.8 million. Despite congestion and increasingly contentious contract negotiations b...

Shipper groups and ports applauded the entry of a federal mediator into contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association. The ILWU and PMA agreed Monday to ask for assistance from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. A fact sheet on mediation in a bulletin posted by Local 13 of the ILWU on its website sought to reassure its membership that "This is not bad news. We are still negotiating for a contract...

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have requested the assistance of a federal mediator in their contract talks that have been going on since May. “In response to a joint request for assistance from the parties, collective bargaining between ILWU and PMA representatives will continue as soon as possible under the auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service," said Allison Beck, acting director of the FMCS in a statement ...

Contract negotiations are expected to resume Monday between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers following the announcement last Friday by the Pacific Maritime Association that terminals in Long Beach and Los Angeles plan to limit the number of workers unloading ships in order to allow terminals to reduce the number of containers that are clogging their facilities. Wade Gates, a spokesman for the PMA, said his understanding was that contract talks were s...

The Pacific Maritime Association says its members are going to reduce the number of longshoremen unloading ships during night shifts in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and concentrate on hiring workers to clearing containers from clogged terminals. PMA spokesman Wade Gates said, “The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been struggling for some time with overall congestion issues related to a range of factors. Within this already difficult environment, the ILWU ...

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said Monday it wants carrier representatives sitting on the board of the Pacific Maritime Association "to come to the negotiating table so that direct and constructive dialogue between key decision makers can take place." Robert McEllrath, the ILWU president and chairman of the union's negotiating committee, said in a press release, "The few issues that remain unresolved relate directly to the carriers, and these key carriers need ...

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers of dock workers at 29 U.S. West Coast ports, is calling for federal mediation in its contract negotiations with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. “After seven months of negotiations, we remain far apart on many issues,” said PMA spokesman Wade Gates. “At the same time, the union continues its slowdowns, walk-offs and other actions that are having impacts on shippers, truck drivers and other local worke...

Negotiators from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association plan to continue to contract negotiations on Monday. ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees said Sunday that representatives from the union and management met on both Saturday and Sunday in talks that have been going on since May on a contract to replace the ILWU-PMA agreement that expired July 1. Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchan...

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and their employers are scheduled to resume contract talks in San Francisco Thursday, but have dampened expectations that an agreement on a new contract for West Coast dockworkers is imminent. “Statements and rumors that our negotiations are ‘close’ to a final contract are not true. Even after seven months of negotiations, we remain far apart on several issues, and the union slowdowns continue to disrupt the movement of cargo throu...

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union ended a longshore caucus of about 90 union representatives on Tuesday, but the union has still not reached an agreement with employers on a new contract despite seven months of negotiations. The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers, sent the union what several sources have said was a “comprehensive” proposal last week. After reviewing it for several days, on Monday the union responded with what ILWU spokesman Cr...

Delegates from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union will gather today in San Francisco for a caucus and may review a comprehensive proposal from employers. While not a “last and final” contract, sources say there was a proposal given to the union by the Pacific Maritime Association so that the 90 or so ILWU delegates attending the caucus would have something to review and determine whether or not to accept. While some shipper and industry executives...

The decision by transpacific ocean carriers to postpone congestion surcharges until 2015 does not mean the legal issues associated with how, or when, they are applied have been completely resolved, Michael Khouri, a member of the Federal Maritime Commission, said Monday. He outlined several steps the FMC is taking to make sure the process is transparent and fair, including the creation of a page on the agency’s website to serve as a clearinghouse for all carrier surcharge announ...